Elizabeth Olsen is goddam amazing. Her performance in “Silent House” (2011) alone is worth the price of a rental. She honestly makes me think of a young Jodie Foster.

I’m surprised this film was so widely panned. I thought it was generally good, and I’d give it an 8 out of 10. It was damn scary, and it had some nifty devices going for it. One was its real-time action, another was its exclusive use of very long tracking shots, that were carefully edited to make the entire film look like one, long continuous take. Another was filming a lot of scenes in almost complete darkness – capturing Olsen’s character’s point of view as she flees through a house from a mostly unseen assailant.

Was this supposed to be a twist movie? If so, it failed in that sense. The plot development toward the end was spelled out early on, and when certain items keep popping up, it’s a clincher. If you can’t see what’s going on by the last 15 minutes, you stayed up too late last night. And although this is supposed to be a remake of a Uruguayan film, its “twist” makes it remarkably similar to a well made French horror film from a few years back, which I won’t name to avoid spoilers. (Please follow suit in any comments.)

I’d recommend this …with the caveat that nearly everyone else seems to have hated it.